#this will never be a throw-in-the-washing-machine cosplay | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

shishidoryofan · 6 years

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Hope Everyone Enjoys. :)

RobStar Week 2018 Day 2: Cosplay

Starfire looked at herself in the mirror.

After a difficult month of finding the right fabric, she had purchased a sewing machine and gotten a hold of many books teaching her how to make her costume just right. To be honest, it was that different from how they would make clothing in Tamaran and she felt proud of her hard work.

Getting the spider symbol right proved to be quite the challenge though. Her design did not look nearly as good as the one in the comics.

The red and white smashed wonderfully on her and since she already had red hair, Starfire did not have to worry about getting a wig or doing anything taxing on her hair.

All that was left was a mask.

Starfire’s new found comic book friends had told her they were called domino masks. At that, she felt embarrassed for not knowing that because her boyfriend always wore a domino mask almost constantly.

The convention was in a week and was suppose to last three days. Starfire really only wanted to go to the Saturday event because the writer and artists of Renew Your Vows were going to be there for a book signing and give away merchandise. She wanted to impress them with her costume.

Starfire was going as Spinneret.

Her chance encounter into the comic book world had happen by accident a few months ago. She was going to the market to get some groceries for a surprised feast when she made the mistake of knocking into some guy. The guy was reading a book as he was walking so he was not exactly paying attention to Starfire, but the bump had happened.

Because of her alien strength, Starfire had accidentally pushed the guy a few steps back with the book jumping out of his hands. Once she realized what had happened, she had quickly flew to pick the poor guy up and grab his book.

When Starfire went to pick the book up, she notice that it was nothing but pictures of people in masks and costume swinging around the city (not to different from what Robin does).

As the guy was shaking his head to try and gain his composure back, Starfire took the chance to flip through the pages of the book. She had heard about these. They were about a group of superheroes just like her and her friends...but they were only fictional.

Before the guy even had the chance to say anything, Starfire quickly brought the book to his face and pointed at it. “Where can I purchase these books?”

And that was the start of her comic book obsession. In particular the Renew Your Vows comics with Spider-Man, his wife Spinneret, and their daughter Spiderling.

They were all so cute together. Starfire just couldn’t help but be drawn into a world where a family of superheroes not only fight crime together, but they also go through real life issues together. The Spider-Man being cute was great too (though not as cute as her boyfriend).

But Starfire has also tried to keep this new obsession from her fellow teammates.

While it did not bother her, she knew the real superhero community might not be so keen about people writing about fictional superheroes. Of course she did not hear it from them personally, but it was a feeling she had.

Plus she did not want them to think she was more invested in fictional heroes.

Starfire was still admiring her costume in the mirror when she heard a knock on her door.

“Star are you in? Can I talk to you?”

“R-Robin! Hold on!” She dashed to find some robe she could throw on. Starfire had made it her sole mission to not let anyone find out, especially the person who she considered the love of her life.

After over a minute of trying to find a robe and making sure everything was covered, she finally pressed the button to open the door. He had on civilian clothes saved his domino mask.

“I was wondering if you wanted to go see a movie. Just the two of us and then we can go to the arcade.” He smiled at her and that made her heart almost explode.

She could not see why they should not go out. There was no crime to fight. There has not been any suspicious activity in the city for a while. Plus, she had a whole week to work on her mask for the convention.

“Of course I would love to!” She exclaimed. “Let me just put something nice right quick.”

–

It was not until they were at the theater that Starfire remembered the theater was inside Jump City’s Mall…where the mini arcade was also location.

It is also in the mall where her regular comic book store was located.

If she was suddenly acting strange, she sure hoped Robin did not notice.

He held her hand all throughout their walk to to the theater. According to him, they were going to see some spy thriller movie about a guy who goes undercover as a secret agent to take down a spy corporation from within.

Starfire simply nodded and said it sounded fun.

She could not concentrate during the movie. It was not that the movie was bad (though she wasn’t fully paying attention to it), but being in the mall let her to start thinking about her Spinneret costume. She needed a domino mask and there her boyfriend was, with a domino mask covering his eyes.

She stared at him almost through the whole movie. In her head, she was mentally drawing how he looked with the mask and how perfect it fitted his face.

Without thinking, her fingers started to brush his cheek and that’s when Robin turned to face her. “Star?”

“HIIEE!”

Starfire screamed without thinking and quickly turned to the other side so she would not be facing her boyfriend. A few people in the theater ‘Hussh’ her or told her to be quiet. She did not really pay them any mind, but it did cause Robin to pat her on the shoulder.

“Are you alright Star?” He said. He sounded so concerned. “If you don’t like the movie, we can do something else?”

“Tha-That would be nice.”

Anywhere else would be better than sitting in a room for two hours mentally drawing her boyfriend’s face. Not that she would not have any problems doing it under normal circumstance (he was very nice to look at), but she just felt wrong that she was using him as a mental guinea pig for her silly hobby.

After a few minutes of following him, Starfire was so preoccupied with doing something else that she did not realize that the something else requires still being at the mall. The booming neon lights and the sounds of video games being played woke Starfire to the fact that she was going inside the Arcade.

Robin did say he wanted to go to the Arcade today.

When they stepped inside, there was a huge list of eyes starring at them. Being a superhero means you were kind of famous and because the Teen Titans were fans of having fun, the team hung out here pretty often.

“Star look!”

Robin pulled her into room where the music guitar game was at. There the boy who was also playing stopped and smirked at him. He motioned for Robin to take the guitar onside of him as a challenge.

It was challenge Robing easily took.

Starfire stood there in awe as her boyfriend was easily defeating the other guy. She always enjoyed seeing him having fun. When they first met, he use to take things way more seriously and keep things to himself. Now he was freely having fun.

And she was having fun…for a while.

Then the idea came to her. Since Robin was busy playing music guitar, he probably would not notice if she just left him for a bit to go visit the Comic- No!

She shook her head and slapped her cheeks. Today was just a simply crime free evening for her to spend with her boyfriend and that was it. That was it. That was it.

That was really what she wanted to do, but as she kept saying that to herself, Starfire found herself further away from Robin and walking around the mall.

Her new plan was to simply go to the bathroom and freshen up. It was not like she was leaving Robin by himself or anything. She was simply going to wash her face. Sure the comic book was a store she had to pass up, but that was not her destination.

No.

Starfire felt guilty.

Not only has she been keeping her little comic book collection hobby a secret from her friends and teammates, but she has been keeping it a secret from her boyfriend. Robin was going to notice that she was acting strange in the move theater. He was going to notice that she has left him at the arcade.

She should just turn around and go back. Have fun with her boyfriend, play against him in that music guitar game he has gone to love so much and-

“Missy is that you? Come to shop around?!”

That is when Starfire jumps and realizes she is right in front of the comic book store once again.

Though she has never really said her name, she always had a feeling the owner of the shop recognized her as the superhero Starfire. He was always so polite to her. He would give her recommendations to a different comic book series very often. Of course Renew Your Vows was her favorite, but those only came out once a month.

The owner came walking out to the front of the door. He held up a miniature box and smiled. “I been waiting for you to pass by. We just got these in our shipment just two days ago. I’m not sure how well you are familiar with Funko Pops, but we just got a shipment of the Spinneret ones.” He stretched out his arm to her. “I am giving you one for being such a hero and a dedicated shopper here.”

A very warm feeling almost exploded in her chest. Starfire was ready to give the comic book owner a big hug when suddenly she heard a voice.

“Star!”

Both Starfire and the owner turned their heads to Robin. He was walking briskly towards them and Starfire could tell he had a look on his face. It was not a mad look, but one that was full of concern.

“Are you okay? You been acting really strange lately and then you just ditched me at the arcade.” He placed a hand on her shoulder. “Are you feeling sick? Is something bothering you and you need to talk about it?”

The owner was oblivious to her little problem. He took Starfire’s hand and place the Funko Pop in the palm of her hand. “Your girlfriend just won herself an exclusive Spinneret Pop for being such a loyal customer. It’s weird but I don’t get a lot of heroes coming to read comic books about heroes. I guess your lives are pretty exciting already.”

Robin looked at the book in her hand. “Comic books?”

Starfire’s face was now turning red. Was he going to be disgusted with her for her hobby? Did he think she was weird now? Starfire hoped now. She could not take rejection.

The owner chuckled and padded her on the back. “This Missy right here is going to Jump City’s Comic-Con this weekend as Spinneret. Last time she was here she said she was even almost done. Are you going too? Make sure nobody tries to flirt with your girl?”

“Umm..umm.. Star?”

Starfire did not know what else to do in that situation but to just fly away. She hoped Robin could forgive her for running off without him again, but she did not want to see his disgusted look when he realized his girlfriend was one of those people who read comic books.

When she got home to her room in the tower, she just spent two hours just looking at her Spinneret costume.

It was way past the amount of time it would take for Robin to make it back to the tower, and to be honest, she could not tell or knew if he was already here. Maybe he just did not want to talk to her. He was a great person and true leader, so he would obviously still treat her with respect. Respect alone though did not mean he would like her personally.

She wondered how it was for Spider-Man when Mary Jane first found out his secret. Did she not talk to him for awhile. Did they break up? They are married now so she must of have forgiven him.

But her boyfriend was not Mary Jane.

It was almost midnight and Starfire was just starting to doze off when she heard a knock at her door. Her head jumped up and it caused Silky to worm away.

“Star? Are you awake?”

Starfire rubbed her eyes. She slowly got out of bed to go open the door. She took slow steps because it was not something she was looking forward to. Her boyfriend was going to reject her. He was nice so they were still going to be teammates, but that was going to be it.

“I am...opening the door.”

Starfire kept her head down so that she would not look at his face. It was night so the Titans Tower was already pretty dark within the hallways. That gave her the perfect chance to pretend she was talking to a dark void so that the rejection would not hurt so bad.

“Aren’t you going to look at me?” He said.

Starfire eyes stayed looking at the ground. She brought her hands to her chest. “Robin, I am sorry for leaving you earlier. I was ashamed when you found out about my…my weird hobby. But I really like comic books about heroes. I know it is weird because we are real heroes but they make me happy.”

She heard him chuckling. Was he laughing at the situation or at her?

“Star look at me. I’m not made.”

She sighed. Starfire slowly raised her head up ready to face the emotion that was going to show on Robin’s face. That was the plan, but “Robin! You?”

She could not see his face.

It was covered. In fact, his whole head was covered by a mask.

“How do I look?” He turned around so that she would have a full view of his costume, not just the mask. The red and blue fitted him so perfectly. It would match so good with her Spinneret cost-

“You are Spider-Man!!” She pointed one finger towards him before covering her mouths so that she would not wake any of the other teammates. Tears were starting to fall from her eyes.

Robin took off the mask so that Starfire could see his smile. “It took me forever to find a costume that fit me perfectly. Especially at the behind.” He balled the mask in his hands. “It’s not homemade like yours, but now we can go to the convention together as Spider-Man and Spinneret.”

Tears were definitively coming out her eyes now. Without warning, Starfire wrapped her arms around him for a big bear hug. She rubbed her face against his. “This is perfect! Now I just have to finish my mask and then we will be perfect! OH! The badges!” She stopped to look at him. “We have to get you a badge Robin!”

“That shouldn’t be to difficult. But Star?

“Yes?”

He padded her head. “No more hiding stuff from each other. We are in this together remember. Promise?”

Starfire’s grip on him became tighter. All of a sudden they were both falling to the floor. Now they were both laughing, mostly at each other and the situation.

“Yes, I promise.”

#robstar #robstar week #robstarweek #starfire #robin #teen titans

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the-firebird69 · 2 years

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Huge numbers of people at downtown drinking beer huge the whole area is full it's got to be 7 or 8 billion people for real and giant numbers of them are running now the races have begun and most of the reason is rum and mention of cocaine tons of cocaine is out and drinking it they're eating it they're sniffing it there's a gigantic number of people doing cocaine those little more like whip that thing out suck that line down and put it away faster than you can imagine just like their father they put it on there on the middle of the thumb and finger and whoop it's gone and they're off racing tons of them.

The beer station works huge numbers of them have their mouth open they're running by going more more and they're gulping and gulping is a huge contest to see who can do it right massive numbers of people running we have huge beer machines that push out these conveyor belts to the table and just keep pushing it out to the table and keep feeling the table up and the table has like a border on it except for the front it works very well and I invented it and he says boy that's a great trick and we're using it out there too huge piles of cups and we just process them and wash them right there in a high pressure high heat washing machine and reassuring no sweat broken ones get thrown away we have a machine that grinds them up it's small we just throw them up and grinds it and we're making the cups right there he says here we are reproduce the same cup and we don't want any extra plastic no you would not be surprised how many people see anything and they're full of s*** it never happens gigantic numbers of people looking at the machine all of them are inebriated I think it's working cool and they're trying to throw someone up in it it's pretty much what we say Mulan now the races are on and it's gigantic it was 450 trillion people at lake Okeechobee and that's more than enough they're jumping in and the wind is starting to howl pretty soon sweet cloudy here I can ask for the past few days

Hera Zues

This is excellent work we have a brand name out there too so we're going to have a day for this a week and it'll be a moving date I'm moving Target I'm going to have other parties too but down here it's always going to be the mutant Ninja turtles and we have all sorts of cosplay going on people can't get enough of it it'll get to continue doing it until the time's up not too worried about this complaints about John because he's going away forever the cop said can't afford to have him running around doing this to people especially him with a nuisance a lot of people are on the same side they don't like what John's doing or approve it and they're really mad about it. This is in politics she is in the timing favino is a huge issue and people might ignore this stuff for that we're going to run now

Hera Zues

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toxoplasmajuice · 6 years

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nobody replies

@jackssims replied to your photoset “Grayscale came home and met the neighbors, but immediately told them...”

That’s a mood tbh

@tosimornottosim replied to your photoset “Grayscale came home and met the neighbors, but immediately told them...”

Big mood

same tbh

jackssims replied to your photoset “Grayscale told Rusty about his new job, and then went back to the...”

I thought the briefcase in that speech bubble was a washing machine for a second

grays be Washing!

borderlinedub replied to your photoset “They WooHooed for the first time that night. It was probably average.”

ironically vanilla sex

GHSDLHGSDJKGHHKSH

borderlinedub replied to your photoset “Grayscale paid bills the next morning. Rusty learned a recipe.”

see Rusty run. see Rusty run to the edge. come home, Rusty. come, Rusty, come. come home

realtalk when i saw this reply at first i thought you somehow saw the end of the queue

jackssims replied to your photo “The newspaper kid booed Rusty. Maybe she didn’t throw up hard enough.”

5/10 vomit, would not watch again

stop watching ladies throw up where are your fucking parents

borderlinedub replied to your photo “Rusty popped and got that as her maternity wear.”

the Laurel outfit

tosimornottosim replied to your photo “Rusty popped and got that as her maternity wear.”

That nightshade cosplay is looking great, rusty!

see my association was rikka

jackssims replied to your photo “Rusty popped and got that as her maternity wear.”

That’s... really smth to wear as maternity

comfort when hosting a small human < sex appeal

tosimornottosim replied to your photoset “They came out of the BC unmarried, so Grayscale had to use romantic...”

Big mood

what you can’t see in this reply post because i grouped the other reply with jack’s is that that vid replied “Big mood” twice in a row

tosimornottosim replied to your photo “Rusty went and played– Stop. That gives you a personality beyond...”

I feel a bit sorry for rusty tbh

she wants to be a well rounded character so bad

tosimornottosim replied to your photoset “Grayscale went to work. Rusty poured milk onto the cutting board.”

Me cooking

@geezsims replied to your photoset “Grayscale accepted his death happily.”

mood

han...

tosimornottosim replied to your photoset “Rusty ran off, never to be heard from again.”

so when does the Rusty Black Widow Challenge Begin

NEVER I DELETED HER

#nobody rainbowcy #harmoniouspixels #tosimornottosim #borderlinedub #geezsims

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vesperione · 5 years

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TGWDLM As My Friends

INCLUDES ME, MY IRL FRIENDS AND MY INTERNET FRIENDS, TAG YOURSELF AS MY FRIENDS

Emma: Ginger, makes too many dirty jokes, unnecessarily loud, pushes you to the limit, adorable, baby faced as said by another friend, still has a crush on their ex but then again so dO I aND iTs UnHeAlThY For Me Charlotte: @whatever their name is: my bestest friend in the entire world, sends them all my cosplay and memes before they get posted pretty much, sends me dANish i mean dutch on sc, we have a 14 day streak just because we send pictures of our foreheads to each other, half the time we confirm we’re gay by mentioning girlfriends. ALICE, Grapefruit Scented Washing Machine: lowkey thats her contact, awful at maths, a dumb hoe but the best hoe, gives me pizza uwuwuwuw “Oh yeah he’ll fuck your mom backwards” then proceeds to choke on water, makes her crush on the sim but gives them a name as if it isn’t obvious (i’m exposing you) one of the only two gryffindors I like (her and my sister), wanted to throw hands with my last school bullies, got me to write a letter to their ex asking them back out (was together for like 4 days) THOMAS AQUINAS Ted, sonic the fucking hedgehog: pretty fucking autistic (not even kidding, fidget spinner) obsessed with doki doki literature club and fucking monster high, we dated for like a day or smth, he always rings me when my ex is at his house, has the cutest dog that he wouldn’t call sonic, i redraw his art digitally lmao Deb, biblesexual: too gay for her own good, tik tok GODDESS, cosplays+cosplans=never gets shit done, anXIEtY pRonE, NINE NINE, likes her own instagram posts lmao gottem, instagram + coin master addicted, 4″10 and will steal your kneecaps, whatsapp status is their second instagram, has beef with too many people atm ffs, makes offensive jokes, canNOT go one day without mentioning shes bi, vocabulary mostly consists of starkid quotes and the word y’all, tik tok memes, in fact a vine goddess at that, writes essays for fun, gets excited about essays, opinionated Hidgens, goes nyoom: only really needs food, i bought him a bread roll once lmao, were in one lesson together, penguins and microwaves, actually wanted to throw hands with the person who is closer to my dad than i am when he fucking upset me- wants to fuck everyone, the one we mock the most GPG, Miss Malfoy: wants to fuck draco malfoy, getting all stars for her bday, an aries, we share chocolate, we sit next to each other a lot, straight as her hair (very) PUNCHED HER ALMOST A YEAR AGO Melissa, anime: obsessed with anime, dated for a brief period, we the same age, cutest person on earth, shes the karen to my brandy, we go “no u” a lot and then it’s alllll about sex. we’re always there for each other no matter what. she makes me cry with happiness far too much, don’t deserve her and thats a fact.

guess who i am lmao tag yourself in the comments - J

#consjderthecoconut

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motherofdragonfruit · 7 years

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Desperately trying to sell a few costumes!

Giselle curtain dress $50 + I'll be throwing in the hair clips for free. The white under dress part is crepe satin and is fully lined. The floral pattern fabric is printed cotton and it is not lined. This cosplay has never been worn except to try on. The measurements are as follows: Bust: 35" Waist: 32" Length from shoulder to hem: 51"

For an additional $25, I'll throw in the wig. It's an Arda Claudia in light copper red.

Merida princess dress cosplay $50

Dress is made of Casa satin and brocade with the belt being made of brocade. Belt snaps in the front and the dress zips up the back. The main part of the dress and the sleeves are lined. It is in used, but great condition. Costume has been cleaned and can be machine washed (instructions will be included) I am selling this for so cheap because it needs some TLC; The interior seams aren't completely finished, the zipper probably needs to be redone, and there is a small stain that I couldn't get out near the base of the zipper. Measurements are as follows: Bust: 34" Waist: 31" Overall length: 48"

Cosplay includes dress and belt that snaps in the front

These items are coming from a smoke free, but pet friendly home. Prices do not include shipping.

#merida cosplay #giselle cosplay #disney cosplay #for sale #please share #enchanted #enchanted cosplay #brave cosplay #brave #Pixar #disney

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originaldetectivesheep · 7 years

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A Life of Riley Part 1 - The Problem With Grinckles ch 1

As these things go, at least this time of the year, around here, this wasn't far off a perfect day. The sun was still coming up, but there was enough light that Wybert Avenue was a pure riot of orange and red and yellow all the way down the long hill out of West Campus to the slough where the old rail trail crossed, and there was just the right amount of cool, damp autumn fog in the air to give the smell of the fallen leaves the right zing. It was a good feel – the kind of day you hoped your classes were light, that you didn't have a lab due, that there was a good game on late, that one of your un-tenured profs might want to come out and invest a couple pitchers in good reviews at the end of the semester, that somebody on scholarship might have a spare roll of quarters for the pool table. It was as good a fall day as you could ask for; nearly good enough to make up for the fact that I was up and walking through it at seven in the morning on a weekend, or that I'd gotten kicked out of bed because of having to get up – or more accurately, of who I had to go and see.

I couldn't really blame Fred – hookups are kind of like this – but he could have stood to be a little nicer about it. I had my pants half on and was trying to jam a foot into one of my boots when he rolled up on an elbow and rubbed me on the shoulder. "Leaving so soon? Do you really have to? Can't you stay a little longer… and then we can go get breakfast somewhere after?"

I thought a little, and set my boot back down on the floor with a clunk. "Yeah. I can stay. We can stay in for a little. I do still have an errand I have to run this morning, but I can do it after, on the way over if we want to go to Rhoda's Cafe on the other side of the eng campus. It won't take a second – I just need to go up to the AP lab and check in with a friend there about this wire-run list." I set my hands on my belt to push my pants off again, but when I turned all the way around, Fred was backed into the wall, his mouth hanging open in shock and horror as if I'd said "I lied about not having herpes" or something, not "I need to go run an errand sometime".

"AP," he said, struggling to speak, his thin beard and moustache twisting around into rope-lasso contortions. "AP – the Applied Physics lab?" I nodded. "And your friend, your friend who asks you to check their harnesses, your friend is Riley Kannacheskis?" I nodded again, slowly. None of this was news to anyone – Riley was probably the most-well known lab head on campus, and if you asked some rando freshman linguistics major or whatever to name a specific lab, they'd probably say "Applied Physics". But that was kind of the problem – it was why Riley, and the AP, and the stuff they got up to were infamous all over campus that was the problem.

Fred leaned past me and picked up my boot, then shoved it into my lap. "I'm sorry, sweetie," he said, "but if you're really involved with those AP people you're going to have to go." Now it was my turn to sit there dumb and shocked, mouth hanging open. "Don't get me wrong, Leo, I like you, you're still a cutie, and the sex was good, but I'm not going to stay hanging around with you and risk getting attached and then worry when you get roped into something mega-stupid and might get killed. The sex wasn't that good. And I definitely definitely don't want to hang out with you and get involved myself. No way. Period. Those people are too weird, and anyone who gets too close to them gets stuck in their weirdness too. I had a fun time, but this is it for us." He raised an eyebrow, and pointed over at the door.

That was that, and so here I was out too early in the morning without a kiss goodbye and a half-lie to maybe do it again sometime or even so much as a goddamn cereal bar, but even though I was still sore about it, you had to admit that Fred had a point. The AP lab was a weird place where weird people built very, very weird machines, and Riley as lab lead had a weird personal magnetism that without fail, always drew lab members, their friends, and any innocent bystanders who got too close in to the very heart of whatever fundamentally bizarre problem the lab had created for themselves, or decided to tackle for some desperate no-hoper.

Because that was the Applied Physics lab's thing: they applied physics, and built machines. Weird machines, but sometimes amazing ones – like the quantum-state dislocator that should probably have won Riley and Yuping a Nobel Prize if the power supply hadn't slagged itself into a slurry of molten copper and burning motor oil the third time they turned it on. But because they weren't an engineering lab, and thus not always building really practical machines, they had a hard time getting funded, and so Riley was always on the lookout for some kind of back-channel, back-alley deal for parts, or favors, or just future goodwill to stretch the lab's budget and let them keep doing cool experiments. But because the AP lab was what it was, and Riley's solution to virtually every problem seemed to involve doing something extremely weird, usually with a machine that was liable to explode or set itself on fire or polarize everyone's dental fillings in a three-block radius, it pretty quickly got to be that only the very, very weirdest and least solvable problems got brought over; everyone else did something more productive and less likely to result in major property damage, like calling the police or lighting a candle to St. Jude.

The last time that I'd gotten involved with one of the Applied Physics lab's problems, back in the spring, I'd ended up face down in the mud of a drained pond while Riley fired a DIY autocannon over my head at a giant lizard cosplaying as a washing machine. And this wasn't a one-off: there was that time where I'm pretty sure I mugged myself and stole my own wallet in the state dislocator, and that time where Carolína went to deliver some notes and got like stuck inside someone's math problem for three days, and if that thing where Remy's ex-girlfriend drank a gallon of ham and had to get her stomach pumped wasn't strictly an AP lab thing, he had been doing something for Riley when his bike – which we were fishing for when the lizard thing happened – somehow went into the Horse Pond, and he still hadn't really told me what the hell was going on with that at all. I could go on. This was the kind of lab where they ought to have "Abandon All Hope of a Normal Life, Ye Who Enter Here" over the door, instead of just "Danger – High Voltage Equipment In Use, Knock Before Entering".

And yet, here I was still going over there. It's not like Riley and the rest were bad people, not really, and nobody'd gotten badly injured or permanently poisoned yet, and Carolína was able to get herself out of that demogorgohedron pocket dimension or whatever, and nobody'd even gotten arrested after that cannon thing, which had to be like a billion times illegal each way. There was never a dull moment around the Applied Physics crew, and usually everything was safe enough; Fred had freaked out over nothing – he probably thought I was going to beg out of treating for brunch – and was worrying about nothing at all.

I followed the bike path off the street, keeping to the side as it wound its way through the Back Yards of cheap dorms, un-managed woods, and half-maintained rec facilities in towards the main engineering campus, idly looking over the flyers and stuff posted to the trees and lampposts, which always got thicker once you got onto actual campus again. Learn Serbian Today with the Jevrem Obrenović Society. Sydney Pollack complete filmography marathon at the A.T. Burlton, continuous running no readmittance. A protest from yesterday against the validity of the last Kenyan presidential election. Volunteers wanted for an experimental scabies treatment. When you really got down to it, there was a lot of weird stuff going on at this school that didn't have anything to do with the Applied Physics lab. I hitched my shoulders up, thumbs in my belt; I was coming up on the Horse Pond, re-flooded and lizard-free, but still a reminder of how unrelated weirdness could quickly become the Applied Physics lab's weird problem.

The pond was looking healthier for the cleanup, but was ringed in a whole array of new signs, one after the other like those flipbook ad posters you sometimes get in the subway: University Property Sensitive Habitat Please Respect; Vulnerable Wetland No Dumping; Please Do Not Dump Active Nuclear Materials (This Means You Riley, someone had scribbled onto that one in laundry marker); Clean Up After Your Pets; Do Not Use Pet Waste Bags To Dispose of Grinckle Offal; Do Not Re-Release Caught Grinckles. The last couple looked new, and there were a couple buzz-cut freshmen from China or Vietnam squatting by the water's edge with fishing poles and a bucket – so at least somebody thought that the grinckles had gotten over here too.

I'd been working over the summer, back home, and nobody I was friends with from school was really interested in fish or fishing, so it was kind of weird, getting back on campus, to find this weird thing happening where there were these grinckles, which I guess was some kind of spiny invasive fish that I'd never heard of before, in all the ponds and lakes that nobody had ever cared about before, let alone ever found any fish in back in the spring. But now like every third email alert was about grinckles, grinckles as a wading hazard, grinckles possibly contaminated, do not just throw piles and piles of grinckle guts into your dorm trash bags. There was a rumor that they tasted like rutabagas, but I'd never tasted one of those either, had never seen let alone tasted a grinckle, and had no interest in ever doing so. I was just glad that this was an inextricably weird thing at school that was never going to come up in the AP lab; I mean, it was a fish. It's biology, not physics, and it's just a stupid fish, even if it's getting in somewhere it shouldn't. It was someone else's problem, and it was going to stay that way. I checked my phone as I cleared the last bunch of trees onto the eng quad; too early for the bagel stand, but maybe, if Riley had been working overnight, I could borrow something for breakfast at the lab along with my circuit diagrams.

Chapter 2

#nanowrimo #alifeofriley #fiction #so glad hypertext is a thing and i don't have to do comic-book-style callback notes

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